


Learning the Ways

by Lollikins



Series: The Corruption [7]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst and Fluff, Dom Park Seonghwa, M/M, Sub Kang Yeosang, Switch Choi San
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:14:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27244039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lollikins/pseuds/Lollikins
Summary: As the boys come to grips with their powers and their new situation, a nightmarish delivery changes everything.
Relationships: Choi San/Kang Yeosang/Park Seonghwa
Series: The Corruption [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979759
Kudos: 16





	Learning the Ways

Moon Hwangi woke the boys up at seven to begin their mental training. After their mental training, they ate breakfast and San took over physical training. Yeosang showed a good deal of promise but Seonghwa was going to take work. He was naturally adverse to physical confrontation which was odd given his particular desires with Yeosang. Perhaps they were part of the same part of his psyche but San wasn’t a psychiatrist to be able to say for sure. After their physical training, they took a shower and came down to lunch which Moon Hwangi made. 

After lunch, they decided that the monk shouldn’t make lunch anymore. For all of his good qualities, cookery was not one of them. Seonghwa was the best cook of all of them but he was also the one with the most demands on his time. The weather still hadn’t cleared enough for them to begin shooting again so he was still at home but once he started shooting again, they would all go together to Jeju. The entity was less likely to attack them if they were together and would be less successful than if they were alone. 

The doctor gave Moon Hwangi permission to move around but still begged him to not do anymore exorcisms. Yeosang sat reading a magazine but with his ear turned to their conversation, “You won’t promise me will you?” Ahn Soojin asked. 

“I can’t and you know it. I know you care about what happens to me and I can’t tell you how much that means to me but you’re a good kid with a full life. You’ve got a job helping people and a new husband who you seem to adore. These boys have taken me in as their family and I will protect my family in the only way I know how.” His voice was gentle and calm, the complete opposite of Ahn Soojin.

“Soojin…” He said quietly. Yeosang had to strain his ears to hear. “How about this, I won’t do anymore exorcisms for strangers. I will only do it if it involves the boys or you.” 

“I- I understand but you’re wrong about one thing, it’s not just the boys who are your family. I’m your family as well. The lives of all of the people you saved are your family and if they have children then their children are your grandchildren. You gave us all lives we would have never had without you. Because of that, you are my family and you always will be.”

The monk made a small noise of surprise, “Ahn Soojin, you really know how to make a guy cry.” 

Yeosang chuckled to himself as he heard Moon Hwangi sniffle.

Two weeks later, the weather cleared enough for Park Seonghwa to begin filming again. Everyday, they all went with him to the set and they made a deal to ensure that none of them was ever out of sight of the others. Keeping rigidly to that condition, the filming went off without a hitch and  _ The Traveller _ was completed. When they returned home from Jeju, Moon Hwangi informed them that he had done some research and found out that the previous guardians had been killed. One by one, they had been picked off. There was only one of them left, Han Ju-Eun, and she told him about a Priest she had seen before both of the others were killed. While she no longer had any powers, she was able to help in the boys training. 

Seonghwa couldn’t conceive of not only losing one of his lovers but being the only one left alive. He found himself spending a good deal of time talking to the older woman. He found her absolutely fascinating, she claimed that she and the other previous guardians were nearly three hundred years old yet she looked to be in her mid to late 40’s. She said they grew lax in their old age after such a long time of relative peace, they didn’t recognize the danger until it was too late. “Be sure to keep your lovers close. Together you are very difficult to defeat, apart… Apart you can be picked off like fleas on a dog’s back.” 

“Teacher?” He asked carefully. Ju-Eun looked up from her tea, “Do you regret it?”

“Thinking about running back home huh? It was hard sometimes and there were times that I cursed the gift I was given. For all of the pain I feel now, I think it was more curse than gift. However, I still remember the years of laughter and love. I remember the lives we saved and the children’s, children’s children who also live because of what we did and I am grateful. There will be pain Seonghwa but don’t for even one minute forget the joy and the love. Don’t become grief stricken and maudlin, turn it to anger and use your anger as a weapon. Those are the things that sustain you when all else has fled.” 

Seonghwa nodded his head and poured Ju-Eun another cup of tea before they returned to his training. Magical training he found a good deal easier than the martial arts training. San found the magical training a good deal harder than the mental and the physical. He had been training his mind and body since he was a small boy with his parents owning a tae-kwon-do center. Magic was alien to him and he had a hard time wrapping his brain around it. Yeosang seemed to have no great trouble with the mental or the physical pursuits nor did he excel at any of them either. It was almost as though they had been purposefully picked. 

Then there was the hardest part, Moon Hwangi introduced them to Han Minsook - his former girlfriend and a shaman. Not that the mysticism and magic that she taught them was any harder than anything else but more the tendency that Minsook and Hwangi constantly bickered over the best way to do things. They got into a 40 minute screaming match over whether you should light the candles with your right hand or your left. When they started, the boys would always slink off to other pursuits because it was guaranteed that it would be a while before the couple remembered their existence. 

At what felt like an eternity but had in reality only been a few weeks, Monk Moon Hwangi took them on their first exorcism. Yeosang managed to talk the spirit into relinquishing her hold on her victim and laying aside her grudge. The whole affair took less than half an hour. When it was over, he looked up to find the monk looking at him with his jaw hanging open. “What?” 

“I admit, I’m jealous. All these years of putting my life and limbs on the line and you were able to talk her out of her grudge with your open sincerity.” 

“The fact that I was able to see why she had a grudge helps.” Yeosang shrugged a bit. 

Their second was far less simple and was resolved by San simply beating the ghost out of the body and then kicking the daylights out of it. It left all of them more than a little surprised, 

“I didn’t know you could simply beat a ghost into submission.” San said in surprise as the ghost vanished.

“Most people can’t.” Moon Hwangi said as he ran his scimitar through the place where the ghost had stood. “First you have to be able to see and interact with them and most people can’t do that. I can’t always see them but you … Remind me never to upset you San.” 

San laughed, “As long as you stop eating all of the sausages, I’ll never have a reason.” 

The old monk took a couple of steps backward and held his scimitar before him protectively and then laughed, “You should be faster. I thought you were the one with the supernatural speed.” 

“You’re still faster when Seonghwa puts sausages on the table.” San reached out and took the scimitar from the monk and put it into the scabbard on his back. 

This was how they spent their days, training and doing their best to help clear up the ever climbing amount of supernatural activity. After doing three exorcisms in a row, they made their way home. Seonghwa flopped down on the couch and just laid there, all of his muscles aching. A moment later, San flopped on top of him and then Yeosang on top of him. “Ow.” 

“Ow is right, why are you so pointy Yeosang?” San asked.

“Oh right…” He took off his gear and laid it on the floor beside sliding off to the side and catching Seonghwa’s hand and laying his head on San. 

“Is it just me or does it seem like it’s just getting worse?” Seonghwa asked Moon Hwangi who was taking off his sword and hanging it on the coat rack near the door. 

“It’s getting worse. I think your priest is the one doing it and it won’t stop until we can put an end to him.” He wandered over to the kitchen and began to pull out ingredients for dinner. 

Seonghwa saw what he was doing and fought his way free to get to the kitchen before the monk ruined dinner. “I’ll cook, go rest. You’re older than me, remember?” 

Hwangi looked offended as he was pushed out of the kitchen, “I almost think you don’t like my cooking, Park Seonghwa.” 

“He doesn’t. You’re a good teacher and a good man but you’re a terrible cook, sir.” Yeosang said from his position on the couch with his head in San’s lap. 

The monk opened his mouth to argue before closing it again and moving to the large chair in the living room and sitting down. 

“Sir?” San asked. “How do we fight a demon?” 

It was a question that San had been thinking about a lot. Since the day that he had come to visit Yeosang, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the priest. If he was a demon or controlled by a demon, that still meant they were probably going to have to fight a demon. 

The monk paused in his lifting the remote control he had picked up and just toyed with it thoughtfully before answering, “That’s a hard question to answer, San. Every demon is different and it depends on how powerful that demon is and what sort. Han Minsook and I were talking about how to fight it and she has some good ideas on the subject.” 

“She has good ideas… does that mean you two actually talk without yelling at each other?” Yeosang asked incredulously.

“Of course we do. We’re adults after all.” Hwangi countered. 

San looked at him with disbelief plain on his face. 

Hwangi cleared his throat, “We’ll have to seek him out and soon. You three won’t have any real peace until you deal with him and find out how he is doing what he’s doing. This increase in supernatural activity isn’t normal and it’s obviously building up to something.” 

“It reminds me of Ghostbusters before that Sumerian god…” He stopped himself and really wished he hadn’t thought about that. Demons were one thing but a god? Nope, he was not ready for a god. 

When he looked up, everyone was staring at him with a look of discomfort. “Please tell me that isn’t a possibility.” Seonghwa said from the kitchen. 

Before the monk could answer, Seonghwa held up his hands with a knife in one hand and a piece of chicken in the other, “No, no - don't tell me right now. I don’t want to know right this second. It’ll just be one more thing for me to worry about.” 

“At least we know where he is, he never really made any secret of his location. Not to mention, I’m fairly sure the rectory at your old parish is the heart of everything that is going on. I’m sure it’s the key.” Hwangi said.

“Soon huh?” asked San.

“Soon.” Yeosang confirmed.

Just then the doorbell chimed. San climbed up from the couch and answered the door. There was a messenger with a package. “Package for Choi San, Kang Yeosang, and Park Seonghwa.” 

That was odd, “I’m Choi San.” 

“Sign here please.” 

San signed and passed a small package wrapped in plain brown paper. There was no return address listed. If it hadn’t been so small, he might have been more worried about the contents. 

“Who was it?” Yeosang asked as he discussed what to watch with the monk. 

“Messenger.” San fetched a pair of scissors and cut the cord holding the package shut. When he opened it, it was stuffed with paper towels and a sandwich bag with three polaroids in it. When he picked up the sandwich bag, the paper towels stuck to it and he saw three severed pinky fingers. All of the blood drained from his face and he ripped open the sandwich bag to find a picture of Yeosang’s mother clutching a bloodied hand. He flipped to the next and found a picture of his sister glaring pure evil at the person who took the picture. She hid her hand but he didn’t need to see it to know. The last picture was of Seonghwa’s brother, it looked like he had put up a fight. He was on his hands and knees, his head being held up by his hair for the picture. 

He pulled out the single piece of paper, “I love a good family reunion, don’t you?” 

San stumbled backward and landed on his ass, still holding the paper. “Sir...Sir… Sir…” 

Tears slipped from his eyes as he held the sheet of paper and polaroids out to monk Hwangi. Yeosang got there first and took them. His face went stoney as he saw the pictures. Seonghwa had drifted out of the kitchen, he slapped both hands over his mouth as he saw the pictures over Yeosang’s shoulder. Grief threatened to overwhelm him but he stook a deep breath and focused, Ju-Eun said he should be angry. He refocused his panic, his terror, into cold hard rage. He went calm and the tears he would have expected didn’t fall. “Not soon… Now.”


End file.
